Disappearance
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: One member of the Stokes family runs a simple errond and doesn't come back. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI

Disappearance

"Yucky fly." Jasmine said as she frustratingly shooed the fly from her face.

All the kids and Nick and Jackie sat at an ice cream shop enjoying an ice cream cone.

"Is that fly bugging you kiddo?" Nick asked.

"Yeah." Jasmine said sounding very irritated.

"It's bugging me too Jazz." Jackie told her as she too shooed the fly away.

"I'll be right back." Nick said.

He left the ice cream shop and went to Jackie's van and grabbed the magazine that Jackie had just bought at the store. He waited for the fly to land and then he squashed it.

"Got him." Nick said triumphantly.

"Gross Nicky, that's my new magazine." Jackie complained.

He tore the back cover off it, the part where he had killed the fly and grinned at her. She still just made a grossed out face. He laughed and got up and threw the back cover away.

"Good dob dada fly gone." Jasmine said.

"Thank you Jasmine, I'm glad someone appreciates my efforts." He said as he looked at Jackie with a smile.

She just laughed.

After they had finished their ice cream the family headed home to unload the groceries they had bought that afternoon.

An hour or so later Karlie let out a wail, it was her dinner time and she was letting everyone know about it. Jackie went to make her a bottle.

"Oh no, we forgot to buy baby formula, I knew there was something we forgot." Jackie said.

They were completely out of formula, Karlie would have to wait awhile for dinner.

"I'll go get some really quick." Nick told her as he grabbed his truck keys.

"You better take my van, your truck doesn't have much gas in it and Karlie is hungry, she probably won't appreciate you taking the time to fill your truck now." Jackie told him.

"Ok." Nick laughed as he went back into the kitchen and grabbed the van keys.

An hour later Nick still wasn't back, and Karlie was screaming at the top of her little lungs, all three of the other kids plugged their ears, trying to shield themselves from the racket that their baby sister was making.

"Come on Nicky, what is taking you so long?" Jackie mumbled as she tried in vain to soothe the fussy infant.

An hour and a half after Nick had left he still wasn't home. Jackie was beginning to get worried. She called his number but got his voicemail.

"Nicky it's me, I'm getting worried, call me as soon as you get this please." Jackie said in her voicemail.

After two and a half hours had passed and Nick still hadn't come home or called Jackie was getting frantic. She couldn't go look for him herself because Nick's truck wasn't big enough to fit all the kids. She thought about calling her parents so they would come and watch the kids while she went and looked for them, or just have her parents go look for him but Jackie decided to call Catherine instead. After all, Catherine did have experience dealing with these situations. She dialed Catherine's number.

"Catherine this is Jackie, listen Nick went out to buy baby formula almost three hours ago and he still hasn't come home, or called me, the baby is screaming and has been since he left, he knew the baby was hungry, he wouldn't just doddle around, I'm getting really worried, could you go to the grocery store by our house and see if you see my van please?"

"Sure Jackie, no problem." She assured her friend.

When Catherine got to the grocery store she drove around the parking lot.

Her heart sank, Jackie's van was in the parking lot, the driver's side door was open, a can of baby formula was on the cement right next to the van, and there was no sign of Nick….


	2. Chapter 2

"This is CSI Willows, I'm going to need backup at the Zipton's Grocery Store on 43rd Street." Catherine said as she frantically called in what she had discovered.

Catherine put on a pair of gloves and got to work. She bagged the can of formula, hoping that there would be fingerprints on it.

She spotted tire tracks, going out of the grocery store but she wasn't sure they would be of use, you'd expect to find tire tracks there, it's a very high traffic area.

Within minutes there were tons of people there to help her.

"Sara, you take the formula and see if you can get any usable prints. Greg, make tire impressions of all the tire tracks you can find. Morgan, go see if the store has surveillance camera's. Russell and I can process the mini van." Catherine instructed. Soon everyone had went off to do what they had been assigned to do.

"I've got blood." Russell declared from the back seat of Jackie's minivan.

Catherine came to take a look, there was just a drop on the back driver's side door handle but it still gave Catherine a sick feeling.

"I'll go run this to the lab." Russell said, hoping they could match it to a perp already in the system.

Cath's cell phone rang.

"Cath, the only prints I got off of the bottle of formula are Nick's." Sara told her sounding glum.

"Ok, at least that let's us know that Nick indeed made it into the store to buy the formula." Catherine said.

She began to theorize what happened in her mind _Nick had hurriedly gone into the grocery store to buy baby formula, he had made his purchase and when he was getting into back into the van someone had nabbed him, causing him to drop the formula onto the ground._

"Catherine, Catherine." Catherine heard someone yelling at her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She turned around and saw Jackie sprinting at her. Jackie had called her mom in an absolute panic after Catherine had called her and told her what she had discovered at the grocery store. The second her parent's had arrived at her house to watch the kids Jackie had raced over to the grocery store.

"Come on Jackie, let's go over here so I can take your statement." Brass said as he grabbed his good friend's wife before she could get any closer to the crime scene.

At the lab Russell had told Mandy to make the drop of blood found in the mini van her top priority. She immediately ran the sample. She and Russell waited impatiently for the results, crossing their fingers they would get a match so they could have a viable lead into Nick's disappearance.

They got a match alright, but it wasn't anyone they had expected, in fact they were downright shocked.

"It's Jackie's blood." Russell whispered, almost not believing his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

"Catherine, we got a match to the blood that we found in the mini van." Russell said into his phone the second she had said hello.

"Thank God, who's is it?" Catherine asked.

"Jackie." Russell said.

"Jackie as in Jackie Stokes?" Catherine asked, she was so stunned she nearly fell over.

"Yes."

"Well run it again, that can't be right."

"We ran it twice Cath, it's her blood. She's in the system because every teacher in the state is required to get a background check as well as submit their fingerprints and DNA"

"Alright, well there has to be an innocent explanation, I mean Jackie adores Nick, she'd never hurt him, nor would she take her children's father away from them."

"I hope you're right and my guess is that you are, but right now we have to treat her like we would any other suspect, do you know where she is?"

"Yeah, she's here at the grocery store, about two hundred yards away from me with Brass."

"Alright, go talk to her, and remember, treat her like you would anyone else." Russell instructed.

"Ok." Catherine said quietly as she hung up.

She took a deep breath and then walked over to where Brass and Jackie were.

"This is not happening, this is not happening, not again." Jackie said as she rubbed her face with her hand.

"Alright, it's going to be alright, let's go over the time line of what went on this afternoon." Brass said as he wrapped his arm around her in a protective manner.

Catherine went next to Brass to listen to what she was about to say.

"At about 3:30 Nick left to get baby formula, he should have been back in a half hour tops, when he wasn't back an hour and a half later I called him but I only got his voicemail, when he still hadn't come home a while later I begin to totally panic and that's when I called Catherine."

"Jackie, we found blood on the back driver's side door handle of the minivan."

"Oh God, is it Nick's?" Jackie asked quietly.

"No, actually it's yours, can you explain how it got there?" Catherine asked.

Jackie appeared very relieved, which Catherine took as a very good sign.

"Well, the other day I was buckling Karlie into her car seat and I caught my fingernail on the buckle, I ripped the nail so short that it bled, I tried to be careful to not get any blood in the car but I must have anyways." Jackie explained as she held out her hand to show Catherine her injured, and very short fingernail.

Catherine let out a silent sigh of relief, she knew Jackie didn't have anything to do with this but she was glad that her explanation was more than plausible anyways.

Just then Catherine's cell phone rang.

"Cath, the store does have surveillance, and you need to come take a look at it right now." Morgan said rapidly into the phone.

"Ok, I'll be right there." Catherine said as she took off at a full run towards the store. A store clerk led her to the surveillance room, where she found Morgan. Morgan had her eyes fixated on the screen.

"It's very grainy but, well, see for yourself." Morgan said.

The video showed Nick opening the driver's side door, holding the can of formula with one hand and just as he was about to get in a green car pulled up next to Nick's van, a man got out he was dressed a pair of jeans and a black shirt, and he had a gun pointed at Nick. Nick immediately put his hands in the air, dropping the baby formula. Nick then got into the green car and it drove away. The video was of such poor quality that they couldn't make out the guy's face, nor the license plate.

"Take this to Archie right now and see if he can enhance it." Catherine instructed.

"Got it." Morgan said.

The video proved two things to Catherine, the first thing being that Jackie had absolutely nothing to do with this and the second thing that it proved was that Nick was in serious trouble. Catherine was relieved about the first thing but the second one made her ill.


	4. Chapter 4

Everyone was running around, looking for anything that might lead them to Nick's abductor.

"Willows." Catherine said into her phone once again.

"Catherine, Archie was able to enhance the video, it's very clear now, come see it." Morgan said, sounding like a kid in a candy store.

"Archie enhanced the video, come on." Catherine told everyone.

"Wait, what video?" Jackie asked.

"Oops." Catherine mumbled, she didn't want Jackie to know about the video, she was going through enough as it is, there was no reason to put her through that.

"The store has surveillance video, it shows Nick being abducted, in the video Nick isn't hurt." Catherine told her, leaving out the part about the gun, trying to spare Jackie the awful details.

"You stay here with Brass." Catherine told her with a sympathetic smile.

"I want to see it."

"I don't think that is a very good idea Jackie." Catherine said.

"I'm a big girl, I can handle it, I want to see it." Jackie demanded, sounding somewhat angry at Catherine's attempt to protect her from the details.

Catherine was surprised, Jackie never used that tone of voice, she was always so calm and sweet.

"Alright, come on." Catherine said softly as she gently grabbed Jackie around the shoulder and led her to Brass's car.

"Jackie, I really don't think you should see this." Russell said as he Morgan, Archie and Sara, were already watching the video when everyone else walked in.

"I appreciate the fact that you are trying to protect me from seeing something horrific Mr. Russell but I'm watching it anyway." She said stubbornly.

Archie looked at Russell as if waiting for conformation to show the video while Jackie was in the room.

"Roll it then." He told Archie.

Archie started the video.

Tears ran down Jackie's face as she watched what was unfolding but then suddenly she realized something.

"Archie play it again." She told him.

"No Jackie, that's…" Russell started to say.

"Play it again Archie." Jackie demanded.

Archie hit play.

Jackie watched the screen intently.

"I know him." Jackie blurted out as she pointed to Nick's kidnapper.


	5. Chapter 5

"You do, who is it?" Catherine asked.

"Well I don't actually know him, and I don't know his name but I definitely recognize him." Jackie said.

"From where?" Russell asked.

"The ice cream shop." Jackie said.

"What ice cream shop?" Catherine pressed, she had no clue what Jackie was talking about.

"Earlier today Nick and I and the kids went grocery shopping and afterwards we took the kids for ice cream at the little ice cream shop down the street from our house. That guy was right ahead of us in line. I took notice of him because of what he ordered, it was some sort of sundae and it looked delicious. I remember telling Nick that I wished I had ordered the same thing."

"Did Nick look at the man when you said that?" Catherine asked.

"Yes very briefly." Jackie said.

"Did Nick appear to know him?" Catherine asked.

"No, and if he did he didn't tell me."

"Jackie what time were you guys at the ice cream shop this afternoon?" Russell asked.

"Around 12:30ish I'd say."

"Alright come on everyone, we're heading to the ice cream shop but not for ice cream." Russell announced.

Everyone took off in separate vehicles, Jackie rode with Catherine.

When they all rushed into the ice cream shop there were no other customers in the store and the people working there looked horrified to see so many law enforcement officers.

"Do you have surveillance video?" Russell asked one of the workers.

"Yes."

"We need to see it right now please." Russell said.

"Alright, follow me."

Russell made the employee play the tape, starting around 12:20 in the afternoon for that day. Sure enough at 12:34 their suspect walked in. Nick, Jackie, and the kids walked in at 12:35, and just as Jackie had said they got right behind the man in line.

"He paid with a credit card." Russell said, his face beaming.

"I need you to look at all your credit card payments for today, find this guy's and give us his name." Russell said feeling his Adeline kick in.

"Ok." The scared looking teenage employee said.

"Let's see, we have a receipt for a Carmel-peanut butter sundae at 12:35, the name on the receipt says Chad Millerson. A Carmel sundae is what the guy that you were looking at in the video had." The employee said.

"That has to be our guy. Chad Millerson, does that name mean anything to you Jackie?" Russell asked.

"No." Jackie said shaking her head.

"Thank you so much for your cooperation." Russell said.

"Yes thank you so very much." Jackie added.

"You're welcome." The kid said.

"Let's go." Russell said.

Everyone turned to run back out the door.

As soon as she had gotten back into her car Catherine dialed Archie's number.

"Archie, find out anything you can about any Chad Millerson's in Las Vegas, we'll be at the lab in no time."

By the time everyone had gotten back to the lab Archie had hit pay dirt, a lot of pay dirt, maybe even too much.

"I found ten Chad Millerson's that live in Las Vegas, I got all their addresses." He told them.

"Ten." Jackie exclaimed as she felt tears come to her eyes.

"Alright, it's ok Jackie. We'll spread out, we'll each take a couple from the lists and pay them each a visit." Russell said, trying to reassure her.

"And look for what? We don't have warrants." Catherine told him.

"I know, question them, look for anything that might lead us to Nick, I'll stay here in case you guys find something and need a warrant. Jackie, you stay with me." Russell said.

Jackie opened her mouth to argue Russell cut her off "Trust me, it's better if you stay here." He said.

Jackie sighed but finally agreed.

The others all took off to their cars while Russell led Jackie into the break room.

"Cream and sugar in your coffee?" He asked.

"I don't want coffee right now, thank you though." She said.

He ignored her and poured her a cup of coffee and then poured some coffee cream into the cup. He then set it down in front of her.

"Thank you." She mumbled.

"Jackie I know what it's like to have a loved one be kidnapped, it's the most horrific thing I've ever experienced in my entire life. I also know that this isn't the first time you've had to deal with this situation and I am truly sorry, I couldn't imagine going through that again."

Jackie looked up at him and gave him a sad smile as two tears trickled down her cheeks.

Russell reached over and grabbed her hand.

"Listen Jackie, Nicky's tough, he's also smart. He'll figure out a way to keep himself alive until we can get to him and we're not going to stop until he's back with you and your kids. You just have to believe in us."

"I do." She assured him.

"You also have to believe in Nick."

"I do." She repeated.


	6. Chapter 6

Catherine was getting frustrated. The first Chad Millerson she had visited was an elderly gentleman, around eighty Catherine guessed and he appeared so shaken by the fact that Catherine had visited him about a kidnapping Catherine worried the poor guy might drop dead on the spot from a heart attack. He had however been very cooperative and within mere minutes Catherine determined that this Chad Millerson had absolutely nothing to do with Nick's disappearance.

She was now knocking on the door of the second one on her list and no one appeared to be home. The lights were off and no one was answering the door. She sighed as she stepped off of the porch, there was nothing she could do except go to the next Chad Millerson on her list.

She was just about ready to get back into her car when she spotted something.

Partially behind the house sat a detached two car garage and parked right in front of the garage sat a green car, the same green car they had seen on the grocery store surveillance video.

Catherine dug out her cell phone.

"Russell, I found the green car from the grocery store surveillance video. I need a warrant at 1235 Addisonville Road." She said.

"Ok, did you find Nick, or anything else?"

"No, before I noticed the car I knocked on the door just to ask some questions but nobody is home, or at least it doesn't look like it, I see no lights on or anything else that indicates anyone is in there."

"Ok, I'll get you the warrant, in the meantime, stay a safe distance away, but make sure that car does not leave your sight." Russell told her.

"You got it boss." Catherine said as she sprinted back to her car.

Catherine sat in her car waiting for a warrant, it seemed like a lifetime to her before she heard the sound of police sirens but in reality it hadn't taken that long to secure the warrant.

Before long, Brass, Russell, as well as several cops were running up the driveway. Jackie sat in a police car across the street. She literally had to be held back by the cop or she would have ran up the driveway with them.

Brass pounded on the door.

"LVPD open the door." Brass demanded.

When no one answered he kicked down the door. They quickly scanned the living room, looking for any sign of Chad Millerson or Nick but didn't find either one so they moved on to the next room.

They had searched the entire house before they finally came to a small back room, where the washer and dryer were.

There they found Nick tied to a chair with duck tape and a gag in his mouth, Chad Millerson was standing over him with his arms above Nick's head, and a large metal pot in his hands.


	7. Chapter 7

"Put that down and take three steps backwards." Brass demanded gruffly.

Chad just glared at him and didn't move.

"I'm not afraid to fire my weapon." Brass announced.

Chad decided that Brass probably wasn't kidding so he set the pot down and backed up three steps.

"Now, put your hands in the air and don't move." The suspect did as he was told.

A couple officers quickly ran over to Chad and cuffed him while Brass turned his attention to Nick.

"You alright Nicky?" He asked as he took the gag out of Nick's mouth.

"Yeah." Nick responded.

Brass untied Nick's hands while the officers led Chad outside with his hands cuffed.

Jackie's heart sunk when she saw the man being led away but saw no sign of her husband.

"Let go of me, please." She begged the officer with tears running down her face as she tried desperately to get out of his grasp.

"No ma'am, I'm sorry but I can't let you go in there, it's alright." He said as he tried to console the distraught woman.

The police officer was a big man but it was taking everything he had to hold her back, which surprised him because Jackie was a petite woman.

"_Remind me to never mess with her husband."_ He thought to himself as he struggled to hold onto her.

"Come on Nicky, let's get you outside so Jackie knows you're ok before she beats up the police officer that's with her." Brass said with a small chuckle.

"Jackie's outside, why, is she ok?" Nick asked frantically.

"She's fine." Brass told him quickly.

"What about my kids?" Nick asked.

"They're fine, they're with your in-laws." He assured him.

Nick breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Now I'll just let her see you're ok and then I'll have to separate you two again so I can take your statement." Brass told him.

Nick nodded, he knew this was all just protocol, usually his statement would be taken first but Brass was bending the rules just slightly for Jackie's sake.

As soon as Jackie saw Nick she burst from the cop's hold and sprinted towards Nick.

"Nicky." She screamed.

The cop was wide eyed as he ran after her.

"She's alright." Brass said as he held up his hand to stop him.

"Don't touch him though Jackie." Brass said as he gently grabbed her around the waist to stop her from throwing his arms around him.

She gave him a dirty look.

"He's evidence." Brass told her.

"I'm alright honey." Nick assured her as he had to fight the urge himself to throw his arms around her.

"Jackie, I have to steal him for just a minute, I have to get his statement." Brass told her.

Jackie didn't want to be away from Nick at all right now but she did want Chad Millerson behind bars so she cooperated.

"Someone stay with her." Brass said as he looked at the officer.

The officer gave Brass a look that said _"This lady is a lunatic, I don't want to have to watch her anymore."_

"I'll stay with her." Catherine offered as she waved the police officer off.

Catherine figured Jackie would appreciate a familiar face keeping her company right now instead of a stranger.

"You ok?" Catherine asked as she came up and put her arm around Jackie's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thank you so much for everything." Jackie said with tears in her eyes as she wrapped Catherine in a hug.

"Hey, we were just doing our jobs." She told her as she returned the embrace.

Before long Brass had taken Nick's statement as well as Nick's clothes to be processed for evidence.

Brass then returned Nick to Jackie, and this time Jackie was aloud to throw her arms around him which was something that she took full advantage of.

Catherine smiled as she stared at her two good friends with their arms wrapped around each other.

She decided that the couple could use some privacy and Russell and the other CSI'S could use some help processing the scene so she started towards the house.

"Willows." She heard someone yell.

She turned around and saw the officer that had been assigned to watch Jackie was giving her the _come here_ motion with his hand. She walked across the street where he sat in his police car.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Let me ask you something." The cop, whose name badge read _Carter _said.

"What?" Catherine asked.

"Is that woman nuts?" He asked as he nodded in Jackie's direction.

Catherine chuckled "No, she's literally one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your life, unless and until you mess with her family, then she'll turn into your worst nightmare." Catherine responded.

"That's good to know, because I have to tell you, I've had two hundred and fifty pound male convicts put up less of a fight. That lady is strong, and fast, once she broke out of my grip there was no way in hell I was going to catch her."

Catherine laughed and then turned and walked back towards the house to help the others process the scene.

A couple hours later Nick's whole team was sitting around the lab's break room table, Nick and Jackie included.

"How did you guys find me?"

"You're wife isn't a bad CSI in her own right, she recognized the guy from the surveillance tape." Russell told Nick before turning his attention to Jackie. "So what do you say? Do you want to switch careers and become a CSI?" Russell asked her jokingly.

"No way, I'm sticking to teaching, this one investigation aged me about 10 years." Jackie responded with a grin.

"I bet." Russell laughed.

"Well bad news guys." Brass said as he walked into the room and plopped down in an empty chair.

"What now?" Catherine asked glumly.

"Millerson clammed up, he wouldn't give me a motive." Brass said sounding frustrated.

"What is it Nicky?" Jackie asked as she looked over at Nick, she could tell he was deep in thought about something.

"How'd you know my kidnapper, because I recognized him too but I just couldn't place him?" Nick asked his wife.

"He was in the ice cream shop." Jackie responded.

Nick's eyes got wide.

"Now it all makes sense." Nick said quietly.

"What does Nicky?" Catherine asked.

"What he kept saying to me." Nick said.

"What's that Nicky and start from the beginning." Catherine said.

Nick took a deep breath. "Ok, I went into the store and bought baby formula and as I was getting back into the van this green car pulled up next to me. I didn't think anything of it until he got out of his car, came up next to me, and pointed a gun at me. He told me to get into his car. He told me not to say anything. He drove to the house where you found me at, when we got there he tied me to that chair and put a gag in my mouth. He brought a chair into the room and just sat and stared at me with this evil look on his face. I don't know how long it had been before he got up and went into the other room. I heard him moving things around. When he came back into the room he was carrying that pot in his hand. He kept saying_ I'm going to do to you what you did to that poor defenseless fly_. At the time I had no idea what he was talking about, but now I understand. That's the motive, he was getting back at me for killing that fly."

Jackie's mouth literally dropped open.

"I'm confused, what fly Nick?" Catherine asked.

"Today when Jackie, the kids, and I were at the ice cream shop there was a fly that was driving us all crazy and so I went out to the van and got a magazine and then I went back into the ice cream shop and killed the fly. He must have seen me do it and my kidnapping was revenge for killing the fly.

"Wow like a totally insane version of Grissom." Catherine said, shocked by what she had just heard.

"Yeah no kidding." Nick agreed.

Jackie shivered, not from being cold but from what her husband had just said, his words chilled her to the bone. It was horrifying to think that one little fun, family outing, very nearly turned deadly.

Jackie was so grateful that her husband had survived, she needed him but more importantly her children needed him.

Nick too was grateful to be returned unharmed to his wife and children.

The End!

P.S I am looking for new story ideas! Just shoot me a P.M

Also I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to post but I have been on vacation!


End file.
